The Guru Report: D2-Chestnut Hill Edges Post in Battle of CACC Leaders; Princeton and Lehigh Win But Temple Falls to USF in OT and Penn Falls at Yale

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru 

After recently taking care of two of the perennial powers in the Southern Division of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) in Jefferson and USciences, on Saturday afternoon at its Sorgenti Arena, Chestnut Hill rode a strong defense in the second half to slide by Northern Division leader Post 55-50 to remain the only team overall unbeaten in league play.

Ironically, the Griffins played two preseason exhibition against local Division I rivals to each other, Drexel, off to its best start in history, and Delaware, and those two will be meeting at Drexel Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. to reduce the current leadership in the Colonial Athletic Association to one unbeaten member.

As for the tale of the tape in the CACC heavyweight battle, Chestnut Hill (14-3, 8-0) trailed at the half 34-25 and then went on to clip the Eagles (10-4, 4-2) 30-16 the rest of the way.

Post is ranked 10th in the current D2SIDA East Region Poll. The victory marked three straight against region-ranked opponents, Jefferson #6 a week ago Thursday, USciences, #2 on Tuesday, and the No. 10 Eagles.

It’s also the eighth straight win for Chestnut Hill, which surprised last August making it to the title game of the Philadelphia/Suburban Women’s Summer Basketball League in Hatboro, Pa.

Freshman forward Emily Chmiel had her seventh double-double of the season with 23 points and 12 rebounds, each tops overall in the contest. She also blocked three shots. Additionally, Bri Hewlett had 11 points and four rebounds, Lauren Crim had nine points and six rebounds, and Cassie Sebold dealt four assists.

After shooting 58.3 percent in the first half, Post was handcuffed from the Griffins the rest of the way, hitting one field goal in a 1-12 third quarter and two in a 2-14 fourth.

Chmiel got Chestnut Hill to a tie right near the end of the third but Post made use of the final 75 seconds of the period to regain the lead at 41-38 heading into the final 10 minutes.

Crim’s three-ball quickly tied the score at the outset of the fourth, then Chmiel put the Griffins in front, having last led back in the opening quarter.

The margin got to four but back-to-back buckets that it at 45-45 midway in the period. 

Chestnut Hill then began to separate, three foul shots for a three-point lead.

Post countered for two but Hewlett threw one down from deep to make it 51-47 with 1:58 left in regulation.

Chmiel made it a six-point lead with 29 seconds left, the Eagles the slice it in half with three free throws but Chmiel scored with just two seconds to settle the outcome.

Chestnut Hill will put aside the CACC battles briefly to host the College of Staten Island on Monday at 6 p.m.

Pace and the Griffins have the most wins in the region with 14 and their eight-game win streak is the region’s longest.

Chmiel has become the top shot-blocker in the East with 33 while Sebold gained her 400th career assist, second on Chestnut Hill’s all-time list.

Princeton Keeps Dominating While Penn Trips: The Tigers continued to live up their forecast as Ivy favorites, downing visiting Dartmouth 78-35 at home in Jadwin Gym in central New Jersey.

Abby Meyers had 23 points and nine rebounds, besides swiping five steals and dealing four assists. Kaitlyn Chen scored 10 points, as did Julia Cunningham.

Princeton (13-4, 5-0 IVY) jumped to a 16-0 lead that ballooned to 25-3 on the Big Green (1-15, 0-4) at the end of the period and they ultimately left town still in search of their first Ivy triumph of the season.

The Tigers at the half were up 45-11 coming off Monday’s lopsided win over Penn on the road at The Palestra. Princeton heads to Yale on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip in New Haven, Conn.

That’s where Penn spent Saturday and the Quakers took a 63-53 hit from the Bulldogs (11-6, 4-1 Ivy), who outscored the visitors in the first three quarters before yielding a four-point differential in the fourth in the John J. Lee Amphitheater.

Yale’s Camilla Emsbo had 13 points, and Jenna Clark grabbed 10 rebounds.

Penn (7-9, 2-2) got a double double from Jordan Obi’s 18 points and 123 rebounds while Kayla Padilla also scored 18 points.

The Bulldogs won despite being forced into 22 turnovers.

Next up, the Quakers head to New York, Wednesday at 6 p.m. to play a makeup game from earlier this month when they play Columbia off Broadway in Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.

The Lions stayed in the hunt Saturday for the Ivy leadership, winning 60-52 at Brown in the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I.

Hannah Pratt and Kaitlyn Davis dominated inside play for Columbia (13-3, 4-0 Ivy), off to its best 16-game start in the program’s history, which dates back to the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium in 1984. The 4-0 start is also the Lions’ best since joining the Ancient Eight in 1987.

Pratt scored an equal personal best of her career with a game-high 17 points and also eclipsed a career mark, improving it to 19 rebounds. Davis scored 16 and hit her own career-high with 17 rebounds, 10 on the offensive glass. She also set a career-high with five assists and blocked three shots.

“I think, as a team, we are confident in our skills, each other and our defense,” Davis said. “Our goal is always to stop (the other team) and score. If we stick to that, we know we’ll have the outcome we want.”

Columbia’s 64 rebounds were the Lions’ best in a game since 1990.

“Hannah has become a different animal since Ivy League play started,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, an alum who is also a native of King of Prussia, Pa., in suburban Philadelphia. “She’s just dominating on the glass completely.

“I think when you get that buy in from them you can be a real force because of our athleticism, our versatility and our ability to lead the break at multiple positions. It was huge to have them both show up tonight. I’m really proud of them.”

Lehigh Whips Boston: Meeting for the first time since the Mountain Hawks topped Boston U. in March for the Patriot League title in an upset, the outcome was still them same, this time a 79-64 wire-to-wire triumph in Lehigh’s Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., and the Terriers coach is previous Wake Forest assistant Melissa D’Amico.

She replaced Marisa Moseley, who went on to head Wisconsin in the Big Ten and was previously an assistant to Geno Auriemma at UConn.

Boston U. (10-8, 6-1 Patriot League) had come visiting unbeaten in conference play.

The win was the third straight for Lehigh (13-5, 5-2), making it 10-2 at home on the season, the best start since 2010.

Megan Walker connected on four from deep on the way to 20 points, while Emma Grothaus had a double double 17-point, 13-rebound performance, while Clair Steele just missed getting the Mountain Hawks’ first point-assist double double since Erica Prosser in 2011. She had eight points and tied a career-high dealing nine assists.

“We prepared for them like we prepare for any team all year,” said Lehigh coach Sue Troyan. “Being in the position that we’re in, I think we expect to see everybody’s best game and I think that has helped us get to where we are now.

“Our focus coming in was making sure we controlled the boards and making sure we forced them into tasking tough, contested shots.

“And then executive on the offensive end, we wanted to make sure the tempo was the pace that we wanted to play and not have the game slowed down. I thought our kids did a really good job of executing all of those areas.”

Mackenzie Kramer added 11 points.

Next up is a trip to West Point (N.Y.) and Army at 6 p.m. on Wednesday on ESPN+.

Temple Suffers Tough Loss at South Florida: Mia Davis’ shot with 26 seconds sent the game in overtime for visiting Temple, but the Owls were then overcome by defending American Athletic Conference champion South Florida 75-67 in Tampa.

The win by the Bulls (14-5, 4-1 American) snapped a three-game win streak by Temple (8-7, 3-1), though if you are an Owls fan you can take heart that your team was competitive against a squad that had been ranked all season until recently and that, depending how next Monday’s game at UCF goes, at least coach Tonya Cardoza’s squad could be given a fighting chance to emerge as a dark horse champion in March.

As for Davis, she had a game-high 26 points and six rebounds and now is 71 points from breaking all-American Marilyn Stephens’ career mark set in 1984 and is likely to do it during a three-game home stretch coming up following next weekend’ss game at Memphis on Saturday and UCF on Monday.

Alexa Williamson had 18 points and game-high nine rebounds while Aniya Gourdine had 12 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds.

South Florida’s Elena Tsineke shot 7-for-14 from the field and 10-12 from the line, particularly making a few in the decisive overtime, for 25 points, while Dulcy Mendjiadeu Fankam had 16 points and nine rebounds, Betty Mununga had 11 points and nine rebounds, and Elisa Pinzan had 10 points and nine assists.

Just ahead, however, is a visit from Cincinnati Wednesday at 7 in McGonigle Hall in an AAC game on ESPN+ as the Owls go for a sweep of the Bobcats.

Nationally noted: In the Mid-American Conference, Toledo stayed perfect in league play, beating visiting Buffalo, 75-66, and Ohio U. beat Bowling Green 73-53. In the MAAC, Quinnipiac continued its roller coaster, this time on the upside with a 72-65 win over visiting Manhattan College.

No. 15 Texas won 68-47 at TCU in the Big 12, while in C-USA Old Dominion won over visiting North Texas 67-57. Host New Mexico beat Fresno State 80-74 in the Mountain West, while Tennessee Tech in an overtime upset on the road in the Ohio Valley beat Belmont 57-55.

Looking Head: As mentioned earlier, the CAA showdown between the two conference unbeaten teams takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday when Drexel with a 10-game win streak, hosts longtime rival Delaware in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

Villanova has a key Big East game looking to stay hot in hosting Creighton at 1 p.m. to try to get a split on the season series. The game is on flohoops. And in the Big Ten locals, Rutgers has a tough job on its hands trying to get its first conference win hosting Ohio State at 1 p.m. on ESPN2 at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. Penn State, off an upset at Northwestern, stays on the road to visit Wisconsin at 3 p.m.

La Salle looks to keep a win streak alive hosting Richmond at 2 p.m. in Tom Gola Arena on ESPN+. The game is also tied to fighting pediatric cancer.

Nationally, Northwestern is at Maryland, which has lost two straight, in a Big Ten attraction at 1 p.m. in the XFINITY Center in College Park. Iowa State is at Baylor at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 in the Big 12, while North Carolina is at Georgia Tech at noon in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Tennessee is at Georgia in the Southeastern Conference at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network, while Fordham is at Dayton at noon on ESPNU in the Atlantic 10. In the PAC-12 Colorado is at Arizona at 2 p.m., the Stanford at California at noon but the game is postponed.

And that’s the report.